Gilbert police veteran slain in traffic stop; 2 in custody

by Jim Walsh - Jan. 30, 2010 12:00 AMThe Arizona Republic

The 16-year veteran Gilbert police officer who was fatally shot late Thursday couldn't wait to get back on the streets after two years in the safe but stressful position as a public-information officer.

But six months after he became a patrol supervisor, Lt. Eric Shuhandler, 42, was shot once in the head in the 12th minute of a traffic stop that began at 10:42 p.m. and ended more than an hour later in a wild gunbattle east of Superior after a 50- to 60-mile chase on U.S. 60.

Shuhandler had no way of knowing the passenger in the pickup truck he had stopped at the southeastern corner of Val Vista Drive and Baseline Road for an obstructed license plate was a former prisoner who had pleaded guilty to assaulting a policeman eight years earlier or that the driver had served jail time for punching his teenage stepson.

Shuhandler did find an indication the passenger might be wanted on an arrest warrant and called for a backup officer. He was shot when he walked to the passenger side of the truck and was pronounced dead less than an hour later at Maricopa Medical Center.

"This is probably the single worst scenario that any officer could be facing," said Sgt. Mark Marino, a Gilbert police spokesman.

Gilbert police identified the suspected shooter as Christopher A. Redondo, 35, of Globe, and the driver as Daimen A. Irizarry, 30, of Gilbert.

Both men have extensive criminal records and are expected to face a variety of charges once the five law-enforcement agencies involved in their apprehension sort out their reported crimes from the time of the fatal shooting to the end of the gunbattle. Police had no information on the warrant for Redondo's arrest that prompted Shuhandler to call for backup.

The suspects had not even fled a mile east of the shooting to Higley Road before police were in pursuit.

Marino said one witness to the shooting called 911 almost immediately, while another used Shuhandler's handheld radio to contact police.

Two Mesa police sergeants also were only a few hundred feet from the scene and came to Shuhandler's assistance.

Meanwhile, a small army of officers from five police agencies joined the pursuit.

"It was a massive response. We had a lieutenant mortally wounded. They shot an officer, and they were shooting at other officers," Marino said.

The suspects reportedly fired at pursuing officers and threw tools and other debris in their path, disabling at least two squad cars during the chase.

The suspects stopped the pickup truck for an unknown reason in the middle of the eastbound lanes of U.S. 60 east of Superior, hid behind a fender and started firing at police with handguns, said Lt. Steve Harrison, a state Department of Public Safety spokesman.

In all, 40 officers and deputies from the Gilbert and Mesa police departments, DPS, and the Maricopa and Pinal county sheriff's offices returned fire, wounding both suspects in the legs and causing non-life-threatening injuries, Harrison said.

"No other officers or civilians were killed during the pursuit. We were very lucky," he said.

Redondo served nearly three years in prison on charges out of Gila County, including aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated harassment, one count of child abuse and a marijuana violation, court records show.

He was released on parole on June 27, 2008, after recording eight disciplinary infractions, including rioting and possessing or manufacturing a weapon, prison records show.

Redondo also was convicted of punching a DPS officer during a traffic stop in Mesa on Oct. 1, 2002. He pleaded guilty to punching Officer Brandon Powell during a pat-down and was sentenced to three years of probation, records show.

Irizarry was sentenced to 108 days in Pinal County Jail and three years of supervised probation after he pleaded guilty to assaulting his stepson during an Aug. 4, 2004, domestic-violence incident, according to the Pinal County Attorney's Office.